How can small businesses thrive in a world of trade disruption?  

With tariffs climbing and trade deals being rewritten, small businesses are scrambling to keep pace with the new rules of the game.  

Yet new trading dynamics bring opportunities as well as challenges – both to make SMEs more central to the new trading order, and to ensure they benefit from emerging patterns of regionalisation, near-shoring, and friend-shoring. 

Trade disruption hits SMEs harder 

Small businesses are often the first casualties when global trade hits turbulence. SMEs lack the resources, capacity and networks that large multinationals use to absorb trade shocks. Unlike large multinational firms, they typically have less flexibility to reroute supply chains, diversify sourcing, or navigate complex customs procedures.  

Many governments have taken steps to ease trade-related pressures on SMEs. In May 2025, South Korea announced a ₩4.6 trillion (US $3.25 billion) package for SMEs and start-ups, including loan guarantees, logistics subsidies, and export grants.

For the past few years, the EU launched an SME Trade Defence Helpdesk offering tools and training to counter unfair trade practices. ASEAN governments are advancing regional digital trade and e-commerce platforms, such as the Digital Export Enablement Programme, to help MSMEs access new markets and lower trade barriers. 

Making SMEs central to the new trading order 

Yet at the same time, there are new deals to be done – creating space to give SMEs a firmer foothold in international markets. Recognising the huge potential in this space, many recent trade agreements have introduced dedicated SME chapters. These typically aim to increase transparency, facilitate access to information, reduce regulatory divergence, and promote co-operation on SME support measures. 

Trade deals like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) include special SME committees and online tools to help small businesses understand and benefit from the agreements. Countries like Canada and members of the European Union now add SME chapters to all new trade deals, showing a stronger commitment to making trade more inclusive. 

Importantly, these chapters can also include mechanisms helping SMEs adapt to new or shifting trade routes and requirements in times of uncertainty. 

Trade agreements can also be reshaped in other ways to improve access to markets for SMEs. They can harmonise standards and simplify customs and compliance procedures, reducing costs that impact SMEs disproportionately. They can include provisions for technical assistance, training, and capacity building to help SMEs meet the demanding quality, safety, and sustainability standards often required by lead firms in GVCs. And they can facilitate e-commerce and digital trade, enabling SMEs to connect with global buyers through digital channels and manage logistics and compliance more efficiently. 

Alongside trade agreements, complementary policy tools such as trade finance, trade promotion services, and targeted upskilling programmes can also help SMEs seize new market opportunities and adapt to changing trade dynamics. 

Bringing home the benefits 

Meanwhile, as supply chains fragment and reorient, there is also potential for SMEs to gain ground locally. 

While new deals are being done, many countries are implementing new industrial strategies to shorten supply chains, creating opportunities for local SMEs to become part of emerging regional ecosystems – as suppliers, service providers, or innovation partners. However, they will need the right support to seize these opportunities. 

To support SME participation in newly localised value chains, governments can introduce local supplier development programmes, foster connections with multinational enterprises, and offer targeted investment incentives. Recent OECD work on FDI–SME linkages in Poland highlights the value of coordinated policies to strengthen supplier capacity and connect domestic firms to foreign investors, particularly in manufacturing and high-tech sectors. Infrastructure improvements, especially in logistics and digital connectivity, can help firms integrate more effectively into supply chains.

Complementary measures such as skills development – particularly in meeting quality standards, managing supply chains, and building digital capabilities – can further strengthen SMEs’ ability to compete and contribute to more diversified and resilient production ecosystems. 

Embedding SME resilience in trade policy 

Today’s tense trade environment provides new opportunities for small businesses to step into global and local value chains. However, coherent policy strategies and targeted policy interventions may be required for SMEs to effectively leverage these emerging opportunities. Trade agreements must not only remove barriers but actively support SME capacity-building, while national industrial strategies must invest in the digital, financial, and infrastructure tools that SMEs need to meet demand for shorter value chains. Getting this right won’t just help SMEs adapt – it will help build more stable, balanced, and inclusive economies capable of weathering future shocks. 

OECD support for helping SMEs navigate trade disruptions
The OECD provides actionable guidance to help small businesses adapt and thrive amid disruptive trade dynamics. Relevant publications include SME and Entrepreneurship Outlook 2023, Helping SMEs Internationalise through Trade Facilitation, and Strengthening SMEs and Entrepreneurship for Productivity and Inclusive Growth, offering evidence and policy recommendations on trade resilience, global value chain integration, and access to finance for SMEs.